Nakamoto Research

These are notes on the original Bitcoin wallet address format, along with notable addresses and other details related to BTC addresses.

Address format

The Bitcoin addresses researched in these resources are all in the original pay-to-public-key-hash (P2PKH) format.

A P2PKH address is a Bitcoin address type that allows users to send Bitcoin to a specific public key. You can derive such an address from the public key through a series of cryptographic hash functions.

P2PKH addresses are typically 34 or 33 (case-sensitive) characters in length (but can be as short as 26 characters), and typically start with the digit ‘1’.

They’re the most common Bitcoin address type, securing approximately 43% of the mined bitcoin supply, and used for standard transactions.

Here is an example P2PKH address:

12cbQLTFMXRnSzktFkuoG3eHoMeFtpTu3S

P2PKH address derivation process

The address derivation process consists of these steps:

1. Generate public key: user generates a public/private key pair.
2. Hash public key: hash the public key using SHA-256, followed by RIPEMD-160 to create a public key hash.
3. Create address: Encode the public key hash from previous step in a specific format (usually Base58Check). Then, prefix the encoded public key hash with a version byte (0x00 for mainnet).

This results in a P2PKH address with corresponding private key.

Notable Bitcoin addresses

  
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  │ ⚠ THIS CONTENT MAKES NO CLAIMS ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF SATOSHI NAKAMOTO │
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